The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Entrepreneurs
Divis Educational System aims to create community.
“I am lucky I’m doing this,” he said. “I love what I do. I love the problem we are solving.”
People who are disabled can face extra hurdles beyond the already daunting challenges of starting a business and trying to grow it to profitability, work that often leads to brutal work hours.
Jacqueline Child, who has a number chronic illnesses that have led to disabilities, said she regularly grapples with physical pain and intense fatigue.
Child, who lives in Denver, launched a dating app for the disabled and chronically ill community. She said she has endured more than 40 surgeries because of her illnesses. She relies on a feeding tube and has to build her business around frequent medical visits and the need to take a nap in the middle of the day.
She had wanted to work in a children’s hospital. But after college, her health took a turn and she realized a hospital job would be too physically demanding. She was adrift and jobless. What would the purpose of her life be?
“I did not feel like I was a contributing member of society .... I always thought people would think I was a loser,” she said.
When she’d go on dating apps, she said she came away at times feeling rejection and discrimination when she disclosed her disabilities. In the fall of 2022, she and her sister, Alexa Child, created Dateability, which they say now has about 20,000 users, including a presence in metro Atlanta.
“I’m so proud of myself. Not for finding a boyfriend, because frankly, I haven’t found that, but for finding a purpose,” she told attendees.
The recent awards ceremony, held before a crowd of about 200 people in the ballroom of the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, was organized by Synergies Work, a local nonprofit that connects company founders who have disabilities with resources, mentors and other help.
The organization’s founder, Aarti Sahgal, was mentioned in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story last year about one of her sons, who has Down syndrome and made his first successful cold call as an entrepreneur.
Winners of the second annual EDDIE awards, short for Entrepreneurs Dedicated to Diverse and Inclusive Excellence, were selected by a panel of judges and went to people regardless of whether they had worked with Synergies Work. Sahgal told the Cobb audience that the awards are designed to go to people who are audacious and bold, who are “not scared of breaking down doors, actually, demolishing doors.”
Silberstein won the grand prize for Entrepreneur of the Year, which came with $10,000. Child won the newcomer award.
The event included an array of performers, presenters and award finalists with disabilities. Dan Parker of Columbus, a former drag racer permanently blinded in an accident, has since set a world record for driving blindfolded (211.043 mph) and now crafts handmade pens. Derek Heard, a graphic artist from Albany, said his business, Derek’s Doodles, “makes my voice powerful.” He won an award for creativity.
Brett Swanson, a 26-year-old who has autism and epilepsy, is one of the founders of a metro Atlanta nonprofit, Three Basketeers, that produces gift baskets. There’s just enough work to keep him busy for a day or two a week, but his mom,
Sue Swanson, is hoping it will grow into more of a full-time effort.
He raced through a prepared speech on stage after receiving an award for community champions, and then rushed off, his mom following behind. Back at the table his mom told him, “I’m so proud,” held his face in her hands and kissed him on the cheek.
When Ruby “Sunshine” Taylor took the stage after winning an award for social impact, she called out her parents, including her nearly 86-year-old mom who was in the audience. “This is for you, baby.”
Taylor started the Financial Joy
School, a gaming and education platform to provide financial education. For years she had been a school social worker. Then she suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident. For a long time it left her unsure who her mother was. She was unable to smile or laugh. She couldn’t pick up a fork. She wanted to kill herself by jumping out of a high-up window of the building where she lived in the Bronx, she told a reporter. But her brain was so scrambled that she couldn’t figure out how to get to a higher floor.
Gradually, years of rehabilitation changed her outlook, as did financial and investment education she received from the parent of a former student. Now, her smile is infectious, and she wants to spread the word through her 4-year-old business.
Because of her injuries, a therapist told her regular 9-to-5 jobs are no longer possible, the 46-year-old said. She takes naps, battles headaches and can focus on just one thing at a time or she forgets what she’s doing. “My short-term memory is trash.”
She has to hold herself to work no more than 30 hours a week and often less. The disability, she said, “has limited my speed, but it has not limited my heart.”
Home schooling does not have to result in isolation or loneliness, especially under Kellie Divis’ watch.
She owns and operates Divis Educational System, a local business that offers nontraditional academic and social enrichment to home-schooled teens in Macon-Bibb.
Divis, a former public school teacher in Gwinnett County and mother of three, said she created the business to expand on what she was already doing for her own homeschooled middle school children.
“I just wanted to develop a community of home-schoolers for them to share a learning journey together,” she said. “I guess you can say it falls under the learning pod umbrella. That term became very popular during COVID. This idea is where families connect and support one another through shared learning opportunities.”
Although the fairly new business opened in August 2022, it has already caught the attention of several home-schooled families. About 15 to 20 students participate in program activities, and the small class size enables them to grow closer and learn from one another, Divis said.
The building, at 1125 Walnut St., has an interior designed to provide a very relaxed and homelike environment for the students to learn. Its location also allows them to experience the historic education the city has to offer, Divis added.
“One of the wonderful things about it is that we get to have real-world experiences. I get to take them on walking field trips every week. Since our location is right in downtown Macon, we are able to access all of downtown on foot.”
Divis said what makes the program magical and appealing to a lot of families is its inclusiveness to all demographics and learning disabilities.
The program seems to be a magnet toward students who are considered to be twice exceptional, which means intellectually gifted children who have one or more learning disabilities such as ADHD, she added.
Nothing is off the table for the program’s curriculum, as students can look forward to service learning and community engagement activities such as weeding community gardens or performing songs to senior citizens at Antebellum Arlington Place, a senior living facility in Macon, Divis said.
Divis said she hopes her business will continue to fill in the missing piece for home-schooling families who are looking for extra help.
“I sense that this is becoming a more viable option for a lot of people once they realize, ‘Hey, I’m ultimately responsible as a parent, but I can outsource so I don’t have to do this totally alone,’” she said.
Erin Humphreys’ three children’s participation in Divis’ program has exposed them to social opportunities outside of their large family, including learning about different cultures and forms of art, Humphreys said.
“We have been home-schooling our children for years, and Divis Ed brought a supplemental program into our routine that has been nothing but beneficial academically, physically, emotionally and socially,” Humphreys said. “My children’s participation in Kellie’s program is the highlight of their week, and they can’t wait to share with me what they’ve learned each time they have attended.”
Sundee Tutherow said she credits Divis’ program for the major difference she has noticed in her 13-year-old son, Dean.
“We have been home-schooling for four years. While our educational endeavors were fruitful, Dean lacked opportunities for social interaction,” Tutherow said. “Since joining this program, there has been a noticeable transformation in him. He returns home after classes brimming with positive energy, a testament to the significant impact the program has had on him.”
Divis said she is looking forward to next school year’s enrollment and welcoming more families to the program, especially in an environment as creative and historically rich as Macon-Bibb.
“I just really have a heart for these young teens. There’s so much out there for elementary and younger, and then when they get to be teens, it’s a little bit more difficult to find really enriching and positive experiences,” Divis said.